Mark G’s story

Mark was just one year old when he contracted meningococcal septicaemia in 2003. Mum Liz from Halifax, West Yorkshire shares her son’s meningitis story

Mark was fine until the early hours when he started whimpering. I picked him up and his skin was red hot. I phoned 999 and he was taken to hospital. He was kept in, but the medication he was given didn't help and he kept being sick.

The next day the nurse spotted a tiny spot on his stomach and he was rushed off to have his bloods done.

They started him on antibiotics straight away and he was later diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia on the Saturday, three days after he was admitted. The doctor's weren't expecting him to get so ill as they had started meds straight away.

Mark had to have two blood clots drained from his right knee and hip. The nine days he spent in hospital Mark looked and acted as if nothing was wrong. The nurses were fantastic at Stafford hospital – I am so grateful to them for what they did.

Now, 14 years later Mark has been left with what mum Liz describes as ‘quite a bad temper’, which she attributes to his meningitis experience.